Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
A typical cellular wireless network includes a number of base stations that radiate to define wireless coverage areas, such as cells and cell sectors, in which wireless communication devices (WCDs) (also known as user equipment devices (UEs)), such as cell phones, tablet computers, tracking devices, embedded wireless modules, and other wirelessly equipped communication devices, can operate. In turn, each base station may be coupled with network infrastructure that provides connectivity with one or more transport networks, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and/or the Internet for instance. With this arrangement, a UE within coverage of the network may engage in air interface communication with a base station and may thereby communicate via the base station with various remote network entities or with other UEs served by the base station.
In general, a cellular wireless network may operate in accordance with a particular air interface protocol or radio access technology, with communications from the base stations to UEs defining a downlink or forward link and communications from the UEs to the base stations defining an uplink or reverse link. Examples of existing air interface protocols include, without limitation, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE) or Wireless Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX)), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) (e.g., 1×RTT and 1×EV-DO), Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM), WI-FI, and BLUETOOTH. Each protocol may define its own procedures for registration of UEs, initiation of communications, handoff between coverage areas, and functions related to air interface communication.
In accordance with the air interface protocol, each coverage area may operate on one or more carrier frequencies and may define a number of air interface channels for carrying information between the base station and UEs. These channels may be defined in various ways, such as through frequency division multiplexing, time division multiplexing, and/or code-division multiplexing for instance.
Furthermore, when a cellular wireless network serves a UE over an air interface, the network may allocate various network resources to facilitate communication to and from the UE. By way of example, the network may allocate a particular air interface connection, such as a dedicated air interface traffic channel or a logical radio-connection identifier or radio bearer, for use to support air interface communications between the UE and a serving base station. Further, the network may allocate a backhaul bearer connection, such as a dedicated backhaul channel or logical backhaul bearer identifier, for use to support backhaul communications for the UE. Such a backhaul bearer connection may extend between the serving base station and a switch or gateway, for instance, or between various other network components. Still further, the network may allocate storage of one or more context record (e.g., bearer context records, session context records, or the like) for the UE, which may specify UE capability information, UE service authorizations, and UE bearer status.